‘PANNONICA’ by Nick Prolix.
Not a review.
My own thoughts, from my own perspective on something that made me think.
Good art makes us ask questions..... (there follows a series of question marks).
I got my copy with it’s rough newsprint pages and uneven shaping in a sterile plastic sleeve. Even in this format Mr P plays with composition and preconception. I had followed the chorus of PANNONICA beat poetry on Twitter by my pal Nick and had been enjoying this free-form rebellion from afar. This book, here in my hands is the concentrated version. Squeezed into a zine and delivered ready to read whilst clicking my fingers (I jest - and am thoroughly ashamed of myself!)
This seems like a project that is at once really personal yet from a position of authority and instruction. It is also cool and formless and reminds me of a cross between a seventies comics artist laying down his rules and the Billy Whiz soaked beginnings of the beatnik/psychedelia interchange.
The zine (if indeed that is what I should be describing it as) begins with a loose page of stream of consciousness writings. All gorgeously hand lettered in Nick’s trademark style and in a large brick of a block of ink and paper. I stayed with this page for some time, read it and then returned to pick out moments.
‘Cheesey Twilight Joyride’.
‘My Heart is a Black Book’.
‘Like Dial-Up of Bowel Cancer.’
I began to wonder if there is a different page for each version? What would 24 of 24 be like?
Beyond Burroughs and Bukowski. We have jumped a train through the centre of comics - let a confession begin.
The interior pages beyond the introduction in my 7 of 24 version take various forms. These are often confined within borders and running along the base of a free-floating page like a footnote on a 13th Floor Elevators song. The pages use snapshots of comics iconography like the corners of wordballoons or the smear of dropped ink to formulate a visual verse. The zine hums with the feeling of reinvention and pokes you with moments of clarity. This zings along and whilst a quick read is one you’ll leaf back through immediately.
Everything that we read should leave us changed in some small way. We are ever so slightly a different person whether we read Superman or T. S. Eliot. I have enjoyed this experiment from Mr P and look eagerly for what he does next.
Find Nick and buy his comics over at http://nickprolix.comand follow him, his antics and more PANNONICA on Twitter @nickprolix
This is another reality - it is comics.
Many thanks for reading.
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